She grew up in the »world of yes-men« on the island of Usedom. She worked for Hitler and later for the USSR in the Soviet Zone. And then the American Secret Service came into her life: Erika Assmus – today Carola Stern – should become a member of the SED. In 1950 she entered the party´s university, where she learned all the communist phrases without believing in them. Denounced she had to flee to West Berlin where she soon was known as a GDR-expert. She started writing as Carola Stern. Twice she was almost kidnapped by the Stasi. In the 60s, she came to West Germany, worked for Kiepenheuer & Witsch and the radiostation WDR. Together with Gerd Ruge she founded Amnesty International, together with Heinrich Böll and Günter Grass the magazine L76. As an engaged publicist she became a very important patron for the German democracy.
Carola Stern´s autobiography is a life story full of entanglements and conflicts, full of happiness and anxiety, lively told, brave, honest and without trying to make things seem better than they are.
